Georgia Election Board’s right-wing OKs rule to give local officials power to delay certification

Former President Donald Trump praised conservative board members Janice Johnston, middle, and Rick Jeffares, right. Stanley Dunlap/Georgia Recorder

The Georgia State Election Board Monday finalized a rule Monday that gives local officials more power to dispute certifying election results by adopting a new ballot counting policy that critics contend could disrupt the presidential election in November.

The new rule requiring election workers to manually count votes to reconcile any discrepancies was approved Monday by the election board’s conservative members by a 3-2 vote, carried by the three Republican board members recently praised by former President Donald Trump. Critics claim that Republican state election board members are making it easier to contest Georgia’s election results if Trump once again fails to win.

The rule change approved Monday requires election workers to manually count ballots to reconcile the total number of votes with the total number of voters prior to certifying results.

Three election board members pushing through the change, Janice Johnston, Janelle King, and Rick Jeffares, voted Monday to require election workers to reconcile any discrepancies prior to election certification. State election board member Sara Tindall Ghazal, a Georgia Democratic Party appointee, and Chairman John Fervier, a nonpartisan member appointed by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp this year, opposed the rule Monday.

Under the change, ballots will be counted by hand in order to ensure that the total number of ballots cast is not greater than the total number of voters who submitted ballots. The rule proposal was submitted in July by Salleigh Grubbs, chairwoman of the Cobb County Republicans, who disagreed with the argument that the new rule is intended to delay the 2024 election results if Trump loses Georgia to Harris in November.

Grubbs said Monday that legal protocol had to be worked out before she presented the rule this close to the November election. She refuted claims that she intends to disrupt the election process by pushing to implement the rule change this close to the Nov. 5 Election Day. Instead, the changes are to protect the integrity of elections this year and beyond, she said.

“We have to have assurance, as Georgians, that what we see printed on our ballot is exactly (accurate) and the only way to do that is by a handwritten affiliation on the precinct level,” Grubbs said at Monday’s virtual board meeting.

Voting rights organization Fair Fight slammed the new rule, claiming it was crafted by Trump supporters who continue to undermine confidence in Georgia’s 2020 presidential election results. In 2020, the incumbent Republican President Donald Trump was defeated in Georgia by Democrat Joe Biden by fewer than 12,000 votes.

“Trump and his MAGA allies have taken over the Georgia State Election Board to try and give a veneer of legality to their illegal scheme to disrupt the certification of Georgia’s 2024 election results,” Fair Fight CEO Lauren Groh-Wargo said in a statement. “Many of Trump’s key election denier allies and Republican Party operatives are behind these illegal, anti-freedom changes to Georgia election rules, and it’s all with the goal of helping Trump win the Peach State, even if he doesn’t earn a majority of Georgians’ votes.”

Last week, the Georgia State Election Board approved a new rule giving counties the opportunity to verify that the tabulation and canvassing were accurate and complete before certifying the results.

The new rule makes certification a mandatory process prior to the election results being verified by the secretary of state’s office.

The actions of the newly constituted election board was described as a “mess” by Georgia GOP Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger after the three conservative members held a July meeting that came under fire for violating the state’s open meetings law.

Tindall Ghazal questioned the decision to make significant rule changes at the same time counties are accepting absentee ballot requests for the upcoming Nov. 5 general election.

“We can’t be making these changes at the last minute,” Tindall Ghazal said. “This is exactly what undermines confidence in elections.”

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